Not only does ECS still exist for some reason, it's even having a conference. Held in Austin this year, it features EdSec Spellings (natch!), plus Kansas Gov Sebelius. Details here. Not to be outdone, the Aspen Institute is having its annual ideas festival. Spellings will be there, too, conversing with Eli Broad about the state of American education. Details here.

LA Supt. Brewer: Please Let Me "Kick Some Ass" DFERAdd
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer to the shockingly long
list of American school leaders who once believed that they were in
charge of their schools, only to have cold water/reality dumped on
their heads.

Should more students repeat a grade?
AJCA
story in Sunday’s paper revealed few students were held back after
failing the parts of the Criterion- Referenced Competency Tests kids
must pass for promotion.

I am pleased to let you know that Oklahoma City high school teacher (and education blog commenter extraordinaire) John Thompson is going to be posting here this summer, giving a much-needed classroom perspective to my usual blather.

Thompson teaches high school in Oklahoma City and has been commenting on various education blogs for the past several months -- often with vivid, honest, and sometimes biting insights.

His first post is about the HBO documentary "Hard Times At Douglass High." Click below for his review and some video excerpts.

Notifylist -- the outfit that is supposed to send folks a weekly update / reminder about this site, seems to have been on the fritz for at least a couple of weeks now. So sorry about that. While I'm figuring out an alternative, you can sign up for the daily email alert, which folks seem to like:

In Philadelphia, Privatized Schools Suffer a Setback Washington PostSix
years ago, the Philadelphia School District embarked on what was
considered the country's boldest education privatization experiment,
putting 38 schools under private management to see if the free market
could educate children more efficiently than the government.

There are at least two major headaches facing the AFT in its upcoming Chicago coronation convention:

The first is the entertaining but ridiculous feud between CTU local president Marilyn Stewart and her vice president, Ted Dallas, which is now in court (Can Dallas & Stewart Get Their Act Together In Time?). These Chicago folks are in danger of setting the standard for union dysfunction and incompetence.

The second is the AFT's decision -- as yet unconfirmed -- to give press credentials to local education gadfly George Schmidt, who has been writing about Chicago schools for eons and has been credentialed for all sorts of things in the past. (Ed Notes has that story: AFT Tries to Exclude "Substance").

I'm writing off the report, not Reading First
Brittanica BlogI
have talked to too many teachers and principals who say that the
training and materials they received as part of their Reading First
grants were important and led to real and important gains in student
achievement to think that it is useless.

Over-Mentored? Kevin CareyUntil
we really understand what we are-and aren’t-trying to accomplish with
mentoring programs, it is likely that like the NYC program, we will not
accomplish much.

Gov. Patrick's Union Merger Idea DOA EIAHe's not the first one to float this idea, but I get the sense even he
isn't taking it too seriously, since he "listed the statewide union as
a goal to be achieved more than eight years from now."

Ridiculous and Unrelated Effects (including those actually claimed)Students being held back a year in schoolStudents failing to graduate because of exit examsKids throwing up over test anxietyRemoval of ineffective teachers (I wish!)Teen pregnancy in Gloucester, MASchool violence, bullyingChildhood obesity, depressionThe war in Iraq

Hidden at the bottom of Jay Mathews' recent review of Relentless Minds (Dangerous Minds) is the name of the Matthews much-anticipated book on KIPP, which is apparently coming out in early 2009: Work Hard, Be Nice. The title -- a KIPP mantra -- always reminds me a little of other mottoes like Don't Worry, Be Happy (or Google's motto: Don't Be Evil).

Poll: Math, yes; standardized tests, maybe AP
A large majority of Americans think schools are placing too much
emphasis on the wrong subjects, and more than half think they're doing
just a fair job in preparing children for the work force or giving them
the practical skills they need to survive as adults, according to an
Associated Press poll released Friday.

Universal preschool students perform better USA Today
An ambitious public pre-kindergarten program in Oklahoma boosts kids'
skills dramatically, a long-awaited study finds, for the first time
offering across-the-board evidence that universal preschool, open to
all children, benefits both low-income and middle-class kids.

One fish, two fish, cosine of Q fish LA TimesIn
China, competitive math teams are groomed and cosseted like college
football squads. And in Vietnam, a television show called "Go to
Olympia" tracks math contestants almost as if they were budding
American Idols.

Here's another big, in-depth look at public education from a mainstream paper, proving that they still do these things at least once in a while. This one by reporter Cathy Grimes at the Hampton Roads VA Daily Press is about homeless kids, and profiles several over the course of a chaotic month in their lives: Homework is harder when there's no home. It's not just a feel-bad piece, however. Changing requirements for tracking homeless students are also included in the package, as well as educators' strategies for finding and bringing homeless students back to school. Some of the profiles: High school dean tracks down his 'MIAs', 'Some days, we had no gas, or the car didn't work'.

"Even if all cities did get the level of
performance that you see from the best cities, there would still be a
problem insofar as poor kids tend to do badly even in "good" schools in
the United States."

Which Demographic Hates NCLB the Most? Michele McNeilAbout one-third of those polled think the law is hurting
schools, one-third think it's helping, and the rest think it's making
no difference. The folks who are the most positive about the law are Republicans (no surprise there), Latinos, and blacks.

Reading First is Dead Tim Shanahan [new blog!]Under
the circumstances, "Reading First" is politically toxic, no matter how
effective it may be or how popular with the schools. Via Curriculum Matters.

Michelle Bodden to Resign as UFT Ed Notes OnlineAs reported in an ednotes online exclusive,
Michelle Bodden, who many people were betting would be Randi
Weingarten's successor as UFT President, will take over the UFT's
troubled elementary charter school.

The Baby Borrowers Chad AldemanNBC debuted a new reality show tonight called The Baby Borrowers. Five teenage (unmarried) couples attempt to parent a baby for three days. It's horrendously riveting television.

On the same day that ed schools are being castigated for not teaching teachers how to do math, ed schools and district officials in Chicago are being praised in a new report (IERC_Report PDF) for narrowing the teacher achievement gap:

A little-noted editorial in the NY Times this week (Better-Qualified Teachers) praised NYC schools for doing much the same: "A new study by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research
shows that the teacher qualification gap between poor and well-to-do
schools in New York City narrowed considerably between 2000 and 2005."

My journalism class focused on writing style this week, which got me thinking about what little stylishness I've attempted in my own writing. Not much, but there are a couple of efforts from Education Next that might qualify, including this description of Paul Vallas reflecting on his accomplishments in Chicago just after leaving there (Political Educator):

Self-assured and capable of torrential speech, Vallas only rarely
admits to doubt or fault. "The job was easier than I thought it was
going to be," Vallas recalls, walking briskly on a sunny weekday
shortly before his appointment as Philadelphia schools CEO was
announced. "The honeymoon never ended."

How could you replicate that, even if you wanted to? As CEO of the
Chicago schools, Vallas combined Rudy Giuliani's gruff exterior and
stunning self-confidence with a Bill Clinton–like mastery of policy
minutiae and John McCain's open door to a fawning, half-intimidated
press. He held regular press conferences, called back reporters at all
hours of the night, and spoke in commanding detail about specific
schools and neighborhoods.

Some of the examples we discussed in class included Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Bobby Kennedy's speech about the killing of Martin Luther King. Here are some favorites (not about education) from the other journalism students.

"The federal role in education for the last 40-plus years has been on
behalf of the nation's neediest kids. As such, No Child Left Behind is
written primarily around their needs. I would say those are the kids
who are being grossly underserved in our schools."

Schools for teachers flunk at math MSNBC
Elementary-school
teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds
a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher
Quality.

Laptops for Kids in Small Towns May Not Be Panacea
NPROne
Laptop per Child may have been thinking of the developing world, but
cities such as Immokalee, Fla., feel its kids would benefit, too. But
it's unclear how much the laptops can bridge the achievement gap for
the kids of migrant workers.

McCain's Pay-for-Performance Plan Campaign K12No,
this isn't a merit-pay plan to reward teachers for performance. But,
it's along those same lines—and I'm thinking this might be a good idea.

Promotion This Is How I Swim [new blog!]Three of my four students attended the promotion ceremony from 8th grade to the high school yesterday.

Obama gets girlie Education ElectionObama pledged he would strengthen Title IX, if
elected president, and would ask high schools to report data on
equality in athletic programs, just like colleges do.

Victory on Capitol Hill BoardBuzzThe House of Representatives
overwhelmingly approved the supplemental appropriations bill that
included a moratorium on Medicaid reimbursement an important to school districts.

Is It Multitasking or Brain Brownout? TLN Teacher VoicesA
recent article in the Baltimore Sun reports on research at Carnegie
Mellon and Johns Hopkins universities, suggesting that the new truism
“Today’s students can multi-task” simply isn’t true.

While pundits and educators are wringing their hands about incentive pay for teachers and small-scale cash incentives for student achievement, districts and public service agencies are going whole hog to try and make things better for schools. In Chicago this week, the district gave a 12 year-old girl (and her family, pictured) a new car for her perfect attendance ((Tribune).

For many, this is a cause for more wailing and gnashing of teeth. My only question is whether these programs work (the Flint one has been studied and seems effective) and are targeting the people most in need. Let's not be prissy and idealistic about what we're trying to do here, folks.

News reports suggest that last week's announcement that the National Charter Schools Conference celebrity figurehead was supermodel Petra Nemcova has created a scramble to secure celebrity representatives among various education groups, organizations, and causes.

One of my favorite kinds of blogs is the kind written by anonymous employees, full of complaints and scuttlebutt that only an insider can provide. That's what this one is, focused almost entirely on Terry Bergeson, the superintendent of schools for Washington state, who is up for re-election and is apparently not well-liked by at least one of her employees.

School achievement in Tennessee gets better, study says Chattanooga TimesAlthough there were far more instances of achievement gaps narrowing
between student groups, Mr. Jennings said, in Tennessee, that gap
widened for both poor students and black students in elementary reading
test scores

Soaring Food Costs Hit School Lunch Programs
NPRIn
addition to home cooks and restaurant chefs, food prices are a growing
problem for schools. And the fact that the school year is at an end
isn't relieving concerns for a district in Massachusetts.

Teacher Bonuses Get Unions' Blessing EdWeekOne
of the most ambitious pay-for-performance initiatives in Washington
area schools is drawing strong teacher interest and local union support
even though many national labor leaders have long asserted that it is
unfair to link teachers' paychecks directly to their students' test
scores.

Keeping the Concord Review AfloatCurriculum Matters [new blog!]A year ago, Will Fitzhugh was wondering if the next issue of The Concord Review,
the renowned journal he founded in 1988 to recognize high school
students' outstanding history research papers, would be the last.

It turns out after all that the principal of Gloucester High School in MA was just following the lead of the San Diego educators who recently told high school students that their friends had died in drunk driving accidents (School Uses Fake Drunk Driving Tragedy to Scare Students). So the principal made up the whole pregnancy pact thing to warn students against the dangers of teen pregnancy and premarital sex. Indeed, there may not have been any pregnant teens. But then the media got ahold of the story and -- neglecting to interview the students involved -- fell for it harder than the kids did, and the principal temporarily forgot that he made up the story in the first place (Mass. school official casts doubt on 'pregnancy pact').

I'm a sucker for these "time-lapse" articles that follow kids over what should have been their K-12 experience, even though they usually feature highly mixed and tragic outcomes (School 9 kindergartners had difficult lives in '96 Democrat & Chronicle). Maybe it's the sense of depth you get from reading about kids' lives over a 12 year span -- so often lacking in mainstream news coverage. Maybe it's the reality check that you get from reading about kids' real lives, over time -- not a year, a program, or a short-term effort.

Rich nations copy Venezuela's anti-gang music schools Washington Post
Venezuela's youth orchestras and choirs have helped
thousands of children resist thug life in some of South America's most
violent slums, and now wealthy countries are lining up to emulate the
system.

The news has been full of stories about the supposed "pregnancy pact" in Gloucester, MA (Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High). How very Juno, everyone said. Blame it on Knocked Up, said others. Teen sex, oh no!

A House Race to Watch EdWeekIt will be interesting to see
whether Shea-Porter tones down her rhetoric on the school improvement
law, now that she's spent some time with NCLB co-author Rep. George
Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House education panel.

Charter School Tsunami EIADSEA hired a Washington DC consulting firm to advise them
on "convincing the public to think twice about allowing the continued
expansion of charter schools."...I'll bet
there was an NEA grant behind this.

By my count, EdWeek now has a bazillion blogs -- one for each reporter, basically.

Alyson Klein (right) has officially joined Michele McNeil as a blogger at Campaign K12 -- no more guest blogger status for her.

Not to be outdone, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo and Sean Cavanaugh (left) are heading a new blog, Curriculum Matters, for all the folks out there who care about what happens in classrooms, whoever you may be.

I would make fun of them going overboard just like I make fun of the boys at Flypaper except that -- key difference -- these blogs actually include original reported news much of the time.

You know, information, updates, facts not found elsewhere. As readers of this blog well know, there's too little news on blogs and too much opinionation.

A High School Finds Itself Left Behind and Drowning NYTBureaucrats can make all the rules and set all the benchmarks they
want, but none of it will change anything if no one can be found to do
the hands-on work of teaching. As seen in this film, it’s not just a
thankless job; it looks disconcertingly as if it might be an impossible
one. [HBO doc premieres tonight.]

The Private Lives of Teachers NPRWhat
do teachers do on their summer vacations? That question got students at
Chicago's Curie High School curious. [audio]

Fuel Costs May Force Some Kids To Walk Washington PostThe Montgomery County school board today will consider
giving Superintendent Jerry D. Weast emergency powers to make students
walk farther to school, if need be, in the coming academic year.

Does 8th-Grade Pomp Fit the Circumstance? NYTWhile
some educators are grateful that notice is still being paid to academic
achievement, others deride the festivities as overpraising what should
be routine accomplishment.

Another Non-Magic Bullet
TCKBThe city’s
School Reform Commission voted this week to take back six of the
schools. Twenty more are on warning and could return to district
control.

The First Shot in Reading War II?
AFT BlogI
get to pretend to be smart on the days I read Alexander Russo's "Around
the Blogs" and "Big Stories of the Day" posts. His blog is the place I
go when I need a quick fix on education news.

Don't say that funders and reformers never reflect critically on their own work. (They just don't do it all that often.) Earlier this year, NSVF released a report called Practices from the Portfolio, Volume 1 in
which the organization profiled "some of the
most effective practices in use by the entrepreneurial organizations we
have supported." Just this week, NSVF has put out Practices from the Portfolio, Volume 2, which identifies "four critical challenges faced by charter management organizations (CMOs) as they grow to scale." Great weekend reading, I'm told.

Well, the charter schools folks have taken my advice and snagged model Petra Nemcova for their conference starting Monday in New Orleans, according to a press release I just got from Senator Landrieu's office.

Good move, though I think George Clooney (or Brad Pitt) would have more appeal.

All of you who feel overwhelmed and under-impressed by the big philanthropy money pouring into education these days will be happy to hear that, according to a recent article by Daniel Gross in Slate Magazine, charities are next in line to feel the economic crunch (The coming crisis in American philanthropy).

It's just going to be a little bit delayed, compared to other parts of the economy.

Gross also notes that smaller donors provide the bulk of philanthropic resources, despite the big press given to the big givers.

Not that Gates et al are going away anytime soon. Just that they'll be watching their pennies or something.

Denver School Tries Reinvention as Reform
NPR
Poor
achievement and low attendance at Manual High School in Denver led the
district to close its doors and open a year later. Closing Denver's
oldest high school was not without controversy or protest. But
administrators said starting fresh was the only fix.

Board members surprised by attempt to oust Crew
Miami Herald
Miami-Dade
School Board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla took the first steps
toward ousting Superintendent Rudy Crew on Thursday, calling upon the
board attorney to clarify the requirements for terminating Crew's
contract.

PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE AS PRACTICED ABROAD. TAPPEDIt's ironic that a year after our Supreme Court struck a blow against school integration, the Christian Science Monitor reports that Holland is planning on importing American de-segregation programs.

Don't Be Hating Kevin CareyI'd rather
Ivy League graduates looked for their status signifiers in low-income
classrooms on the Mississippi Delta than in hedge funds and investment
banking houses on Wall Street.

Today's New York Times article about the couple that runs TFA and KIPP is going to make a lot of people a little bit nauseated, given the already imbalanced praise-to-accomplishment ratio that goes along with TFA and KIPP. (There are just 14,000 TFA alums, and 65 KIPP schools nationwide.) Others will find it too soft and uncritical. Me, I'm just excited that the Times had adopted my "power couples in education" way of looking at the world.

"Look for us in the stands at the next talent show or sporting event;
teachers are easy to identify. We are the haggard, disheveled zombies
clustered in isolation, gripping our enormous coffees and diet sodas,
gossiping and griping more than our teenage students. (Don’t worry
about the earnest, fresh-faced young woman sitting by herself who is
simultaneously cheering, grading papers and crying — she is still new.)"

From Will Okun's blog about teaching on the West Side of Chicago. Read all about it here.

2 School Entrepreneurs Lead the Way NYT
Wendy
Kopp and Richard Barth are a power couple in the world of education,
emblematic of a new class of young social entrepreneurs seeking to
reshape the United States’ educational landscape.

Yellow Buses Put Schools in the Red
Wall Street JournalSchool
administrators nationwide are budgeting rising fuel costs for buses
into the school year. But the price of running these vehicles has a
direct impact beyond the bus, including cutbacks on ordering new
textbooks.

Phila. taking back 6 privatized schools Inquirer
In
a blow to the Philadelphia School District's historic privatization
experiment, the School Reform Commission voted yesterday to seize six
schools from outside managers and warned them that they are in danger
of losing 20 others if progress is not made.

He's admitted into 7 Ivy League schools MSNBCThe New
York teenager, who couldn’t even speak English when he emigrated from
Poland only five years ago, applied to seven Ivy League schools and
was accepted by all of them, along with 10 other top schools.

Obama may not have gotten the AFT endorsement and only got official approval from the NEA very late in the game (two weeks ago or so). But he apparently got a lot of early support from his hometown AFT affiliate, the Chicago Teachers Union, which helped propel him into office in the first place. Now, some of the folks who helped make that happen are upset that Obama's union support is being stripped out of the Obama narrative.

Not that such a story helps Obama much -- he's trying to win independents at the center, not rally to his base. Most folks understand that. But the early support from the CTU is by most accounts what really happened, for whatever that's worth, and made a difference. And it is a familiar tale -- not just for Obama -- in which politicians woo the folks they need at a certain point, and then move on to whomever they need next.

Following up on yesterday's post about the failures of residential desegregation in places like Memphis, deseg expert Rick Kahlenberg sent in something he'd written that argues the real reason that Moving To Opportunity didn't result in greater academic gains for low income kids is that:

"there were major flaws in the structure of the program, which meant
that most poor families didn’t move to opportunity but in essence, moved to
mediocrity. Students in the opportunity program attended schools with a free and
reduced price lunch mean of 67.5 percent, compared to 73.9 percent in the
control group. And students in the experiment attended schools with an average
achievement at the nineteenth percentile, compared to the fifteenth percentile
for the control group. Clearly, this was not a fair test of whether genuine
poverty deconcentration can affect the achievement of students."

It may not have been a fair test, but it was a real-world one. I'd love for deseg to work, and realize that much of what happened under the umbrella of residential deseg wasn't as it was intended. What I don't see is any realistic way from preventing future efforts to have the same sloppy, imperfect design and implementation.